 "Best of BS Opinion: India needs a new approach to managing gold and water")
Hello and welcome to BS Views, our daily wrap of the newspaper's opinion page. Today, we look at the challenges and opportunities that India faces in various areas, from gold to flowers to water, and most importantly, China. Read on to know more.
Gold has been the best-performing asset in 2025, gaining 28 per cent in US dollar terms since January, with predictions of an upside of over 25 per cent. Our first editorial notes that further dollar weakening, higher inflation and a slowdown in the world's largest economy could further push demand for gold. This means India's jewellery industry will need to manage inventory wisely. The Reserve Bank of India recently proposed new regulations designed to reduce malpractices in the gold loan sector, too. It will also have to maintain tight oversight of this market along with managing its own exposure to the metal.
India could be staring at a severe water crisis this summer with snowfall on the Himalayan Hindu Kush range reaching a 23-year low for a third consecutive year. Our second editorial warns that water levels in the Ganga, Brahmaputra, and Indus may also run low; this will impact irrigation and power generation, and Indians’ access to water. With groundwater resources rapidly depleting, India’s challenge is to create a water-management template that balances the needs of its population without depleting its water reserves, something that demands a relook at decades of policy choices.
Despite being the world’s second-largest producer of flowers, and the government proclaiming floriculture a 100 per cent export-oriented sunrise sector, India's share in the global flower market is meagre, writes Surinder Sud. The export potential of flowers, including some rare types of orchids and many native species, remains undertapped, as is that of processed and value-added derivatives of flowers. The concern on this count is serious, given India’s inherent advantages - varied agro-climate, cost-effective polyhouses, cheap labour, and location. The major constraints are seed availability, logistics, and cold-chain facilities. Some government schemes are encouraging but other challenges need to be addressed.
Ajay Shah and Renuka Sane point out that even if we return to the trade status quo that existed before April 1, 2025, China will emerge weaker from this episode. One-party rule and demands for loyalty are incompatible with private-sector confidence, they say, noting that the Chinese economy was in trouble well before this trade war. A series of missteps led to discontent about Chinese misbehaviour in economic nationalism. To harness this, India needs to improve its policy frameworks to open up to globalisation (goods, services, capital), and achieve greater safety for the private sector. The Indian state needs to take measures to reduce regulatory uncertainty, enhance the enforceability of contracts, and create a stable environment for private investment.
In today's book review section, Max Chafkin writes about three different tomes, all of which touch upon similar topics - the entangling of big tech and nationalistic politics. These three recent books suggest that Elon Musk's - and other tech titans' - right-wing turn is probably more symptom than cause, the latest manifestation of reactionary forces that have simmered, mostly unnoticed, within the tech industry. One of these studies the relationship between the Nazi state and about 100 of the largest German companies, which were sceptical of the Nazis but tended to approach Hitler’s rise with an eye to the bottom line and, in doing so, slowly acquiescing to its most insidious demands. This book, Chafkin says, is both horrifying and riveting, in part because the rationalisations offered by business leaders sound eerily familiar.